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25 Sport maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 21 MAY 2014 WORLD CUP SPECIAL Ayrton Senna, a Brazilian icon above Pele who was "terrible" with a ball at his feet Senna was more than a Formula 1 legend. "Ayrton put Brazil onto the world map, that is the truth. I don't know why they look upon him, and not upon other sportspeople, like that." Photo by Pressefoto Baumann - DPA There is absolutely no doubt that Brazil is a land of football players and football fans, but their greatest sports icon, Ayrton Senna, was "terrible" with a ball at his feet SEBASTIAN FEST THERE is absolutely no doubt that Brazil is a land of football players and football fans, but their greatest sports icon, Ayrton Senna, was "terrible" with a ball at his feet. "Ayrton was not good at football, he did not play well. He played very badly, he was terrible. He would have been lost if he had depended on foot- ball!" the comment and the smile that goes with it come from Viviane Senna, the sister of the Formula 1 legend who died on May 1, 1994 at the Imola rac- ing circuit. "Ayrton was awful at football," Vivi- ane Senna told dpa during an inter- view in her office in central Sao Pau- lo. "He only thought about karting, morning, afternoon and evening." That was the young Senna, a man who could not have known that, fol- lowing an untimely death over which the whole country wept, he would rise to surpass Pele as Brazil's greatest sports icon. Both of them are three- time world champions, but Brazilians seem to think that the driver was a greater champion than the retired footballer. Twenty years after that day on which Senna's Williams crashed into a con- crete retaining wall on a corner at the Enzo e Dino Ferrari Circuit, Viviane is still not able to explain why her broth- er was and remains so well-loved in a country that is obsessed with football, even though it also has a long car-rac- ing tradition. "I cannot explain this, because Pele is a celebrity in Brazil and around the world, an important person, a sports- man who managed incredible feats," she says. "But in fact I hear that both in Bra- zil and abroad. Ayrton put Brazil onto the world map, that is the truth. I don't know why they look upon him, and not upon other sportspeople, like that." Viviane Senna, a 55-year-old psy- chologist who devotes a lot of her time and energy to leading the foundation named after her younger brother, is always respectful when she talks about Pele, a controversial man in Brazil whom Argentine football leg- end Diego Maradona verbally poked in early 2014. "In his own country, (Pele) is the second best sportsman, after Ayrton Senna. Pele will always come sec- ond, be it in international football or in Brazilian sport. The sad thing is that he comes second and will always come second," Maradona said of his arch-rival for the title of the best foot- baller in history. Pele was quick to react, however, by reminding Maradona that in Argen- tina too many think that Alfredo Di Stefano or Lionel Messi were better footballers than Maradona himself. Beyond the perpetual sparks be- tween the two football icons, Viviane Senna has specific details about what her brother meant in the past and continues to mean nowadays. "After his death, I received letters from around the world. I got one from Belgium that said: 'I didn't even know where Brazil was. Then I started to follow Ayrton's races and I went to look up in the map where Brazil actu- ally was'. That is one example of how, in a way, Ayrton became a global ref- erence as a sportsman. It has a lot to do with his values," she says. "His attitude impressed people more than the fact that he won three cham- pionships, because there are other drivers who have won more champi- onships, other Brazilian drivers who have also won three championships, but they do not have that aura," Vivi- ane Senna said. Ayrton Senna's invariable status is periodically certified by opinion polls in Brazil. "I have opinion polls made in Brazil by Young and Rubicam, who every two years carry out opinion polls about brands, products, services and personalities. Ayrton comes first in the personalities list, and he remains in that position every two years," the late driver's sister said. "There is no one in the world who has the same profile as him. Four areas are assessed: knowledge, familiarity, relevance, and profile. He has almost 100 per cent in the four areas. There is no one else with such a profile. Elvis Presley... No one. He is Brazil's most admired person, in every age group, men and women, whatever their in- come, and whatever their region." DPA "In his own country, (Pele) is the second best sportsman, after Ayrton Senna", said Viviane Senna. Photo by DPPI - DPA

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